Step Lightly
by control of chaos
Summary: Updated: A situation at a primary school slowly spins out of control when the school is held hostage by gunmen. The GoM gather to support one of their own, who struggles to get his students out. (Rated T for Aomine's language)
1. Step 1: Forward

**Step 1: Forward.**

**(前進。)**

* * *

_He poked his head around the corner, holding the children behind him back. When it looked clear, he ducked back down to crouch at their eye level. It was hard to miss the look of excitement in most of his students' eyes, but he could hardly fault them that. It had been his idea, after all. "Okay, there's no one this way. Let's be very, very quiet. We're going to head for the east exit, but if that one is blocked off, there is a window loose in the art classroom. Aki-kun, Emi-chan, lead the way. And remember everyone, stay with your buddy."_

_With barely suppressed giggles, the first pair of students stealthily crossed the empty hallway, tightly holding hands, their shoes held in their free hands. They waved back when they had made it to the other side, cueing the next pair to join them in a similar manner._

_The teacher dragged a hand through his messy hair, watching the children and taking cautious glances down the hallways parallel their current location. Behind him, another teacher nervously chewed her lower lip, smiling half-heartedly at the toddler she had been paired with when the girl happily swung their clasped hands back and forth. Noticing her anxiety, the teacher took a moment from his position on guard to give her a nod that was meant to be reassuring. _

_Despite the lack of worry visible on his face, his hands tightened on his own shoes. He hoped the other students were safe._

* * *

"Aominecchi~! It was so intense this morning, but I finally have my pilot's license! Of course, I misread the altimeter again," there was a quiet huff, and the officer could just see his former teammate's effeminate pout, "but my instructor said that she was so impressed with how 'calm and collected' I was the whole time, even when…"

Aomine Daiki reclined lazily in his chair, stretching out his back and legs like a cat settling in for a pleasant nap, dark muscles rippling beneath his uniform. He sighed at the unnatural chirpiness of his friend's endless rambling. Of _course_ his instructor would say she was impressed with Kise Ryouta. As a popular, young part-time model, it didn't matter what the blond did. He could've misread the altimeter, flipped out midair, nearly crashed the plane, _crashed the plane_ and she wouldn't have noticed a single mistake in his final test. If the woman had managed to so much as unglue her eyes from Kise, he would have been honestly surprised.

"…and I'm going out with some of the stewardesses for the company that wants to recruit me, so I wanted to call to see if you wanted to come with us! Ne, ne?"

There had been a question in there, he was sure. "I'm on dayshift today, Kise. Ask Momoi. I'm sure she'll be happy to get out of the office." Momoi Satsuki, much like Kise, could charm her way out of any situation. Be it detention while they were in school or the last three hours of her workday, the pinkette knew just the right words to use. Unlike Kise, it was almost never an unconscious manipulation of her effect on others. He loved that girl like a sister, but damn, she could be downright _evil_ when she wanted something. "If you call up Takao, I'm sure he can drag Midorima along with him if his horoscopes aren't too terrible. Now quit pestering me while I'm working, or my boss will kick my-"

"DAIKI!" A loud screech carried easily throughout the building, sending every pedestrian within a mile scurrying for their lives. The chief of police, Wakahisa Minori, was a frightening man. He was even more so when he sensed that one of his subordinates was slacking off on the job.

"See what you've done?" he grumbled. "Now Wakahisa's on the warpath again." With a palm covering the speaker of his cell phone, he shouted back, "I'M COMING!" Officers scrambled to get out of his path when he strode across the large room to the chief's office. As intimidating as the chief was, Aomine had spent his middle school years under the scrutiny of a man that could be ten thousand times scarier: Akashi Seijurou. To this day, he had never made anyone who could make him feel five years old with merely a look. The man was running the country or the world or something in-between under the guise of acting as a coach to professional shogi players. Every other authority figure he had run into couldn't so much as make him twitch.

Who knew that his years at Teiko would have paid off so well? Somehow, he doubted this was what the teachers had implied about the importance of regular school attendance.

"I've gotta go, Kise. Some of us can't spend our whole day chasing after skirts."

"I do _not_! They chase after _me_!" That was true, and he grunted in agreement. "Anyway, if you can make it, we're meeting up at that café, the one downtown where we normally see each other. Murasakibaracchi said he'd make our sweets personally, on the house! I'm going to call up Kurokocchi to see if he and Kagamicci want to hang out too!"

"Then why are you still talking to me?!" The officer rolled his eyes as he hung up without waiting for an answer. It wasn't fast enough to keep a loud "Ja ne~!" from reaching his ears. The blond could be such an airhead, but as much as his former teammates could grate on his nerves, it was impossible to escape them. Blowing through a group of nervously whispering officers, he leaned against his boss's desk. "Whaddya want, Wakahisa?"

"You could at least through an honorific in there, Daiki." The chief had his hands full with a cordless phone pinned to his shoulder and a pen quickly scribbling down what appeared to be an address and a name if the kanji was anything to go by, otherwise he would have given him his daily smack across his back of the head. He wasn't big on etiquette, but he wasn't a fan of Aomine, especially so soon after his lunch break.

"If I'd wanted to, it would've been there. What's the fuss about?" he asked, gesturing behind himself without turning to the gaggle of officers not two meters away. "Either something's going down, or Ueno finally got himself a date." He ignored the annoyed "HEY!" shouted from the cluster. "I guess that leaves only one possibility, then."

"Yeah, there's something going down. You aren't going to like it, either." The chief pointed over to where his officers were gathered in front of a television screen on the opposite wall. The screen was usually hooked up to a laptop to be used in presentations, few of which Aomine had stayed awake to listen to. At the moment, however, it was tuned into the local news. From the jerkiness of the picture and vantage point, he assumed it was being shot from one of the news choppers. The camera was unsteadily aimed at a large, two-story building. Nothing immediately jumped out at him besides the inordinate number of squad cars pulled up around the fence dividing the courtyard behind the structure from the busy street. He moved to get closer to the screen, unable to hear much or read the text scrolling across the bottom, but a hand pulled him back.

A scowl was spread thickly across his superior's face as he held the phone out with a soft, "Here. Deal with this for me."

"This is Officer Aomine."

"Daiki. Have you seen the news?"

Aomine did a double take, staring at the phone with wide eyes before returning it to his ear. "Akashi?"

"That would be correct, but you have not answered my question."

"Ah, not really. It's on, but I can't really hear what's going on. Are you involved?" Sure he'd expected his former captain and torturer to be conquering the world in a political sense, but it wouldn't be against Akashi's morals (assuming he had any in the first place) to run, say, the mafia.

"Of course, but not in the way you are undoubtedly considering. I will be concise for time purposes. There was a threat sent to my uncle this morning, demanding money and other…considerations in return for my younger cousin and other hostages. By the time it was received, my cousin had already been dropped off at his primary school." It was hard to tell if Akashi was in any way unnerved by this recent turn of events, because if one were to judge by his tone of voice, they would have to jump to the conclusion that he didn't particularly care about the safety of his cousin. Aomine knew better. After training at the police academy and with years of experience with the Generation of Miracles—who were all harder to read than any criminal or suspect he had ever come up against—he knew that it wasn't a matter of emotion with Akashi. The man didn't get angry or worried. He got _even_. When Akashi was in plotting mode, he feared for the health of anyone in-between the man and his goal.

"If you're calling me up, then I assume there's confirmation that these people are already at his school?"

"Yes. However, there have been no shots fired—" that was always a good sign "—and no proof that they in fact have my cousin. Ansho primary school has been locked down and I have a man inside, but I want insurance that no one is injured."

"Ah. Wait, you have someone inside? Already? How the hell did you manage _that_?"

"Hisoka would never be sent off on his own without protection. I had my own until my father felt I was proficient in martial arts and shooting," he stated with no inflection. Aomine felt a sweat drop travel down his forehead. What the hell was with this family? Scary… "Additionally, I personally know my cousin's teacher. I feel assured that no harm will come to him. If anything, I am more concerned for his teacher. He would risk his own safety to ensure his students'." For the second time in a single conversation, Aomine stared at the phone in his hand. Had Akashi really just expressed _concern_ for someone? For that matter, it wasn't even his cousin! "I will call your cell phone after I direct Taiga to the school and put Shintarou on standby." With a click, the call was ended.

Akashi's words echoed in his head as he told the chief that he had orders to be on scene. Wakahisa waved him off reminding him to turn his scanner on. Kagami Taiga was another friend he had made through his years of basketball in school, though as a rival, not a teammate. He still met up with the redhead at one of the public courts for a few rounds of one-on-one before going out for burgers. Kagami had joined the fire department at the same time as he had finished his last year at the police academy, so it wasn't unusual for them to run into each other on the job every once in a while. That still didn't explain why Akashi was sending him over.

He snatched his car keys from his desk and muttered an explanation to his partner. It wasn't as hard to understand why Akashi was alerting Midorima Shintarou to the situation. After high school, he'd gone on to major in emergency care and surgery. His superstition had apparently carried over into the operating room, according to the nurses Kise had flirted with. Having a father as head of surgery and a major contributor to the hospital allowed him to get away with much more than other doctors. He hadn't seen the doctor since Akashi last called them together, but he could make the assumption that he was still taping his fingers.

Aomine's phone rung before he had even reached his car. "That was fast," he murmured, pulling it out of his belt. "Any new developments?"

"Aominecchi~!" Damn. The idiot wasn't satisfied with irritating him once a day anymore.

"Kise, I've got to hang up on you. Akashi's going to call me anytime now."

"But Aominecchi, Kurokocchi isn't answering his phone~! How am I supposed to invite him and Kagamicchi over to eat?"

"He's probably working," Aomine growled, starting the car up and shifting it into drive. "Seriously Kise, I've got a situation and Akashi will kill us both if I don't pick up his call the moment it rings."

"So you'll talk to Akashicchi but not me~?" he whined.

"Obviously. You're not as likely to kill me slowly by exsanguination." There was finally a break in the cars, allowing him to pull out into traffic. He was about to turn down the next street when he realized that he didn't know where Ansho was located. "Hey Kise, you wouldn't happen to be able to Ansho primary school is?"

"Of course! My niece is in her last year there, and I pick her up after school because she's the cutest thing in the whole world! Why?"

A cold shudder went down his spine, as if Kise had just telepathically dumped a bucket of ice water on him. "Ah," he quickly thought up an excuse, because there was no way that he was mentioning the hostage situation. "I'm picking up Akashi's cousin for a doctor's appointment." That was a terrible lie.

"Uwaa~! That's so sweet of Aominecchi~! I thought you were working?" Yeah, terrible lie.

"You know how Akashi is. It's impossible to say no when he wants something. I'm leaving from the downtown office. Ansho is in Kyoto prefecture, right?"

"Hai! Aominecchi is in luck, because it's only half an hour from your downtown branch. Do you know how to get to Kameoka? The school isn't far off the Kyotojukan expressway."

"Thanks, Kise."

"No problem!"

On the expressway, Aomine knew the officer working the tollbooth. He didn't even have to explain the situation for her to quickly wave him through. "You look like you're in a hurry. Go catch us some bad guys!" she said with a smile. He returned her wave with one of his own, thanking her before taking off. His phone rang a second time while he was looking for the Kameoka exit, and he tore his eyes off the kanji once he confirmed it wasn't the exit he needed to grab his cell from the passenger seat.

"Yeah?"

"How far out are you?" That would be Akashi, as blunt as ever.

"Not too far…" His voice trailed off as he passed another exit sign. "I found my exit. Traffic isn't too bad, so I shouldn't be more than eight minutes out."

"Turn on your sirens. We don't know what's going on inside, but shots have been fired."

In Aomine's mind, that was reason enough…but he still had a niggling suspicion that he was missing some vital piece of information. His two years as a detective were pulling recent conversations together to figure out how they fit. What were the chances that Kise and Akashi both had family members at the same primary school? They'd clearly gone out of their way to choose it, when it wasn't the best school in the prefecture nor the most convenient. And Kise was busy, much too busy to be picking up his cousin on a daily basis.

Moreover, how would Akashi get to know a teacher well enough to convince his family that Ansho would be preferable over older and better schools, much less be _worried_ about their safety?

"What's going on? You aren't telling me something."

In the five seconds of silence that followed, Aomine realized something: he knew a teacher working in Kameoka, one with a nearly alarming amount of selflessness who would protect children with unusual ferocity, and in whom Akashi held the highest regard and trust. It wouldn't be too much of a jump to assume that if he were in trouble, any of the Generation of Miracles would jump to his aid, just as he would for them. The very thought made it feel like he had just turned the A/C up to full blast.

"Akashi, is _Tetsu _in there?!"

* * *

_At the sound of a gunshot, the teacher's head whipped around to find the source of the noise while holding up a hand to stop the students from moving. There was shouting from another hallway, but it didn't sound familiar. Too loud and low to be a child's. He only hoped it wasn't one of the teachers he didn't know. "Kuroko-sensei?" a voice asked in a soft whisper, tugging on his trousers. He looked down, meeting the bright red eyes of Akashi Hisoka. Unlike his older cousin, Hisoka's eyes were full of emotion, especially now. "It sounds like another team is distracting them. Should we split up to take the advantage?" Even at eight years old, the child was just as tactically astute as the rest of his family._

"_Hai. Actually…" Kuroko's eyes narrowed slightly in thought. "I think Tanaka-sensei could use some help with her students. Do you think you and Himura-sensei can get everyone to the exit?"_

"_For ice cream?" The child grinned. "I think we can manage. As a leader, can I have an extra scoop?"_

_Kuroko nodded, patting his fellow teacher's shoulder before diving down another corridor toward Tanaka's classroom. The poor woman was probably in tears by this point._


	2. Step 2: Right?

**Step 2: Right... **

**(右に行く...)**

* * *

_Tanaka was indeed having difficulty keeping her children, and herself, under control by the time he rapped quietly on her door. He was crouched down, shifting from foot to foot as he waited for her to answer. When she didn't, he knocked a little louder. "Kodama-san, it's Kuroko. The coast is clear."_

_The paper taped over the small glass window in the door shifted slightly. A moment later, he heard a nearly silent click as the door was unlocked, followed by the sound of objects being shifted. Ever so slowly the door was opened. A woman in a long blue skirt and beige top peeked out from inside, taking in the empty hallway with fear-filled eyes. Long black bangs fell into her eyes, and she swept them back behind her ears with trembling fingers. She motioned him in. Only when the door was securely locked again did she speak. "Kuroko, what's going on?" she whispered. "Are the police here? Is the school secure? I heard shots." Her hands were clasped together in front of her chest, but the tighter she held them, the more they shook._

"_There were shots, but I believe it was just as a warning. Kodama-san, we need to get the children out. Whoever it is, it appears they are looking for someone. What have you told your students?"_

"_That it was a drill, and they had to stay at the far wall until the principal gave the all clear." He looked over her shoulder to see that the students were already starting to fidget and complain. "That's what they told us to do, right?"_

"_Yes, you did the right thing, but we're going to try something different. In the case of children, motivation always helps. Now please, try not to look scared. We're going to be just fine. I heard the police pull up a few minutes ago." His calm façade seemed to soothe some of her nerves, and as he put a hand over her blanched white fingers, some of the trembling stopped. "We're going to be fine," he repeated. "You are doing an incredible job of staying calm, Kodama-san, so please continue to keep calm for the children. We cannot let them know the reality of the situation."_

* * *

Aomine pulled up to the curb in a screech of rubber. Fifteen minutes? Ha, try five! If the sirens and lights hadn't gotten his fellow drivers out of the way fast enough, his negligence of the speed limit had done the job. As he had neared the school, the smaller roads had been cleared by police cruisers and orange caution cylinders and driving was significantly less hazardous.

The first responders had taped off the perimeter, keeping pedestrians from entering the area and shooing off reporters and cameramen with curt responses to their questioning. A few parents were already gathered, frantically asking if their children were safe and what was being done to assuage the situation. Aomine cut through the thickening crowd with little regard to who he was pushing to the side, tossed on his Kevlar vest, and easily jumped the tape. He couldn't tell who was in charge of the mess with an initial glance, so he grabbed the shoulder of a passing officer. "Hey, who's running the show here?"

"Ah," the officer glanced around before locating his superior, "Kato-san's over there." He pointed to a pair of men in conference with a third, who didn't appear to be a policeman with his neatly kept suit and elegant red patterned vest. One of them had a white megaphone in hand, while the second was speaking into a walkie-talkie.

"Thanks." He could easily guess which one was Kato. When the officers shifted as he jogged in their direction, he caught a short glimpse of the third man again, this time noticing the dichromatic eyes. His hair was covered by a handsome grey hat, but he knew that beneath it was bright red hair. Yep, he was in the right place. "Akashi," he shouted to the group, catching their attention. Mismatched red and yellow eyes met his, their owner waving him over. The man must have been wearing shoes that discretely added height to his stature, because he wasn't completely dwarfed by the two average-sized men to either side of him.

"You are earlier than I expected."

"I guess the sirens helped," he retorted wryly. He took a quick glance at Akashi's shoes, which did not go unnoticed past Akashi. Dress shoes, but there was definitely some kind of platform in the heels. His validation was noted with an unsettling frown.

The officer with the megaphone turned from his colleague to look at Aomine. "Akashi-san, is this the officer you called in from the Kyoto office?"

"Yes. Jirou, this is Aomine Daiki. He is a close friend and an excellent officer, top of his class. Daiki, Kato Jirou is the head of the regional office. Unless further measures are required, he will be in charge of the situation from here on out." The two shook hands. Kato gestured to the officer half-paying attention while he pressed the walkie talkie to his ear. "Yosano here is working with some men across the street to get a better idea of what's going on inside. Akashi's man was caught on the second floor when the school went into lockdown, so he can verify for us that the shooters are confined to the first floor. Otherwise, we're flying blind. We know for certain that they have at least one hostage from what our sniper can tell. Looks like it might be a kid."

"Damn." Aomine stuffed his hands in his pockets. From what he could tell, the windows were bolted shut, and the doors would have automatically locked when lockdown started. Getting in would be noisy and give away the advantage of surprise. "Have there been any demands?"

"None, besides the one this morning to the Akashi family."

"So what's the plan?"

Kato nodded at Yosano, who pulled the device away long enough to say, "We're waiting for things to calm down inside. We couldn't get a look at where the shots came from, but there were only two, so we assume they were warning shots to dissuade resistance among the students and faculty. Once it looks like they've settled, Akashi's man on the inside is going to try to get us live footage from one of the open ceiling tiles he found. If need be, we have some of the doors unlocked on the roof. Getting down to the first floor will take time, but it's manageable for now."

"We wait?" There were many things that Aomine hated (annoying people that wouldn't leave him alone, reporters, caramel, mornings, not having coffee especially on said mornings, anything Momoi cooked, reporters, ridiculously hot days, math, reporters), but waiting topped the list. (Reporters came in a close second.)

"We wait," Kato confirmed.

"So you called me here to wait," he complained to Akashi, who merely stared him down. "What…" Bringing his voice down so that only the two of them could hear, he started again, "What about Tetsu?"

"As I told you over the phone, I have no confirmation that Tetsuya was here today. What I do know is that his classroom is indeed on the first floor and that he hasn't taken a single sick day in the last three years since he started working at Ansho."

If it were possible, his heart dropped a little further down. The static ringing in his ears was either emanating from Yosano's walkie talkie or his stomach acid burning holes in his abdomen. Maybe he should have considered a less stressful work environment, like a nuclear power plant. "Then what am I here to do?"

"I summoned you here in the event that our present strategy fails and more drastic action is required. Both on the court and in the field, you have an innate mental flexibility. Few officers can adapt to changing situations as quickly, or as successfully as you. To ensure maximum success, I am keeping all of my options open."

Was that praise coming out of Akashi's mouth, or had his brain finally broken for good? Or maybe Akashi was sick. Yeah, that's it. Or he's worried too, but that would make him seem almost…human. It was a unanimous agreement amongst anyone who had gotten within ten meters of the man that if there was one thing he was _not_, it was human. Mortals couldn't emit an aura capable of killing vegetation and small animals. Did his former captain even realize what he was saying? He hadn't heard a word of praise since his first year at Teiko from this man, and coming from him now, it was like listening to a foreigner mangle the language. Akashi was praising him, right?

The redhead's eyebrow lifted, correctly predicting that he had silenced Aomine for at least the next five minutes. One problem down, a dozen more to go. His phone buzzed twice in his back pocket, informing him that he had received a text. Akashi pulled out an expensive new model that he had been handed to him by his father after his return from a business trip last week. Sweeping through his messages on the touch screen, he quickly read the new message.

[慎太郎: Can't get down to the area hospital, but I'll be on call in the main Kyoto branch until six tonight. Who's angered you this time?]

Though Midorima wasn't a private specialist, he was already used to setting aside time and lower priority patients to stitch back together Akashi's so-called 'associates'. Not once had he questioned what a shogi teacher would need associates for, nor how they could get the injuries he saw. He sent out a curt reply to Midorima, primarily to reassure the surgeon that the situation wasn't of his creation, before scrolling out to read the second message that had arrived.

[大河: Didn't I say already that I'm ON MY WAY? You damn well better explain yourself when I get there.]

Kagami was, as always, succinct in his texts, preferring speaking face-to-face than calls or messaging. The firefighter was stationed in Tokyo's 8th fire district, so it should have been impossible for him to reach the school before the majority of the action was over. Akashi had rung him up heedless of the distance. Like Aomine, the term 'impossible' had no place in his vocabulary. So it was not entirely to his surprise to find that Kagami was in Kyoto for a preparedness training sponsored by the local district and was more than prepared—to ditch the program, that is. Like Aomine, his sense of responsibility had made little progress since high school.

Overall, he was pleased to find that his contacts were all reliable in situations that demanded their regrouping. Even his father had been pleased with his recent reports.

True to his word, Kagami skidded past the caution cones down the street not three minutes later on a red Honda TLM220R, the Kyoto department's 2nd district insignia scrawled on the side of the fire bike in white lettering, a fire extinguisher solidly latched to the body under his left knee and a large EMS bag secured behind him. Leaving black skid marks behind him, the firefighter pulled to a rapid stop, hardly stopping before jumping to the curb and knocking down the kick stand. He sought out familiar faces, and as soon as his eyes locked with Akashi's, he unfastened the medical bag to toss it over his shoulder. "Yo, Akashi, Aomine. You know that I'm not exactly fond of cryptic messages commanding me to come at once."

"It was merely a suggestion, Taiga, one that I implied was out of necessity."

"Whatever. So what am I doing here?" he asked, unconsciously repeating Aomine's identical question from just minutes earlier.

"There is a hostage situation inside Ansho, one that may be difficult to defuse since there has been little success at mediation with the gunmen." Akashi brought him up to speed as Aomine steadily left his dazed state.

"Hey, Kagami, when did you get here? And I thought you were still working with the fire department." He gestured at the light blue raincoat tossed over his darker work jumpsuit, the orange reflection stripes across his abdomen shimmering with reflected sunlight as he moved.

His former rival looked at him steadily as if he had grown a second head. "I am, Ahomine. Got promoted to Fire Captain just last month." He proudly flashed the armband pinned to the upper arm of his jacket, signifying his status as command leader. Following Aomine's confused line of sight to the raincoat, his expression turned sheepish. "Oh, the jacket. I stole it from one of the EMS guys on site. Figured it would get me through the checkpoints faster. It did, by the way. Didn't even have to show ID. And I've been here for a while. Jeez, this must be how Kuroko feels all the time."

Aomine saw Akashi's heterochromatic eyes flash, and he instinctively knew that his explanation hadn't included a single mention of Kuroko's involvement. The eyes narrowed, seemingly reading his mind and daring the officer to bring up the topic. He nearly flinched back, but opened his mouth to tell Kagami anyway. He and Kuroko were closer than any of the rest of them. The fireman deserved to know.

His timing was terrible. Just as he started, "Kagami, th—"

"Hey, what's that?" One outstretched finger pointed at the side of the school building, to the eastern facing exit. "Isn't the building supposed to be in lockdown?"

"Yeah…?" He squinted at the set of double doors, which looked to him just like the other two sets that they had eyes on.

Kagami crossed his arms. "Well I don't know many locked down buildings with jiggling doorknobs."

Aomine struggled to see what he had clearly missed the first time. "I don't see anything, Bakagami."

"Of course, Ahomine. It obviously stopped or it would still be moving."

"How the hell could you see a doorknob, much less a doorknob _moving_, from this distance?"

"Have you ever tried to spot Kuroko in a crowd? After so many years of that, you learn to notice the little things. Including jiggling doorknobs. Oh, hey, I think that window's moving."

"Uh huh, now even the windows are mov—_the fuck?!_" Even from the corner of his eye, he could see one of the windows being forced open from the inside by two sets of small, trembling arms. Akashi was already walking over to the side of the school, and the pair of arguing men hastily made to follow him. "I thought the school was supposed to be in lockdown? Shouldn't the windows all be secured?"

"Some of the bolts must have malfunctioned," Akashi noted with interest. "The real question should be how they were able to pick out the ones that failed to lock."

The window was not quite halfway open when the hands retracted. They were replaced by a leg covered in a white knee-high sock, toes against the school wall to gain a foothold in the smooth, painted bricks. Kagami and Aomine dashed forward as the small body grabbed the window sill and slipped the rest of the way out, a head poking out to gauge the distance to the ground. The fireman reached him first, wrapping his arms around the child's waist. "You can let go. I've gotcha." The pair assumed that the boy was lowering himself, but as he shifted his weight into Kagami's grip, two sets of hands were still clutching each of his wrists.

"Himura-sensei, Hisoka-kun, I'm out," he called up to them in a shy voice.

"Hey, how many of you are there?" Aomine asked, cupping his hands to the owners of the helping hands. "I'm Officer Aomine, Kyoto PD."

"Oh, officer, we're glad you're here," a woman's voice responded as she leaned her upper body out the narrow opening. "I have two classes here, and we can't get the east exit open."

"That's alright, ma'am. We need to clear the children out as fast as possible. Are you in immediate danger?" Kagami had set the child on the ground, arms outstretched to receive the next one. To the surprise of the two men, the boy put his fists up in the air with a quiet shout. The young voices inside echoed his cheer before they were shushed by the teacher.

"No, the men were still at the front doors when we last checked." She and an eerily familiar child lifted a giggling girl by her armpits to hand her off to the waiting pair. Kagami had to hold her at a distance to keep from being kneed in the stomach by the energetic bundle. "Ano… My colleague went back to get one of the other classes, so we may have more in a few minutes. I mean, we will have more in a few minutes." Aomine glanced up just in time to see her swipe a hand across her eyes as she sniffled quietly.

"I presume that your colleague was the one to direct you to this window?" A presence by his side inquired, and he had to visibly resist flinching backwards. Akashi stood, arms crossed over his chest, between him and Kagami. With his shorter stature, the redhead had a better vantage point to see into the classroom. "Hisoka, I see you're fine."

Kagami looked between the student crouched beside the teacher at the window and the demonic presence at his side. The two gave off auras as opposite as night and day or, more specifically, good and evil. They shared their hair color and what must have been the original vivid red that Akashi's eyes had been colored in middle school, but the similarities ended there. Where Akashi's stare was cold, calculating and almost sinister, Hisoka's was soft, though clearly intelligent. The elder and younger also seemed to be the exact same height; at Akashi's age, it was much shorter than average, but for the younger, it put him at a full head taller than his classmates.

"Of course I'm fine, Seijurou," the boy retorted with a grin. "I won an ice cream from sensei!"

"…"

Even Akashi was silenced momentarily by his cousin's cheerful response. "You…won ice cream? Hisoka, you are aware of the situation, correct?"

His cousin puffed his chest out proudly as he assisted another classmate into Kagami's grasp. "I am _always_ aware of the situation. We're playing a new game, to practice being sneaky."

"And you get ice cream if you…what? Get out first?" Kagami cut in, keeping Akashi from speaking. The former GoM captain gave him a thoughtful look, but didn't protest. Instead, he waited patiently for the response.

"It's a team-building exercise. All the classes that can get out without making a sound or being seen get to go out for ice cream tomorrow. Sensei said if everyone is super good, we might not even have to go to school!"

The girl beside him jumped up and down on the earthy floor, carelessly dirtying her tall socks as her twin pigtails bounced with her. "I'm getting strawberry! It's my favorite."

"Well I want chocolate. Looots~ of chocolate," Himura huffed.

"Ma'am," Aomine called back up, "can I have your name?"

"H-hai. I'm Himura Yori, one of the teachers here."

"Alright, Himura-san, you're doing very well."

The young teacher gave him a wan smile, a smattering of color returning to her cheeks. "Do I really look that bad? Kuroko-sensei told me that too."

Kagami paled, nearly dropping the child in his arms. "_What?!_"

* * *

"_A-and th-then he grabbed Sho-kun and s-said that i-if we weren't quiet, he w-w-would—" The woman burst into tears, frantically trying to hold them in with both hands tightly clasped over her mouth._

"_I understand, but Toru-san, I need you to listen." A softly calloused hand drew her into a warm embrace. She shuddered, choking down a sob. As he rubbed calming circles on her back, the terrified teacher slowly relaxed. "You did everything you could for Shoichi-kun, but your other students are still in danger. I need you to do something for me. It'll be difficult. I'm putting all my faith in you, okay?" When she nodded against his shoulder, leaving salty drops to soak into the fabric, he spoke again. "There is a window open in the art room, the one by the east exit. Himura-san, Tanaka-san and some of the other teachers are there with their classes waiting for you, and I have friends outside to help you."_

"_B-but, th-the men…they have guns…"_

"_Toru-san, they don't want to shoot anyone. One of our students is from a prosperous family, and they want money from his parents in exchange for his safe release. I know where they are going to be for the next few minutes because the boy was in my class. Until they can break in to the classroom, they won't be bothering anyone else. You understand?"_

_She nodded again, not trusting herself to speak._

"_Alright, now this is going to be the hard part. You _cannot_ let the students know of the danger. Please, just until you the children out, I need you to be strong—stronger than you've ever been in your entire life. Now," he held her at arm length, meeting her wet almond brown eyes with his own deceptively calm blue, "this is what you are going to tell them."_

* * *

**...but wrong.**

**(...でも、落ちる。)**

* * *

Aomine and Kagami were helping the fourth teacher—Ryusaki Yuji, a man well into his seventies—out of the fully opened window when a series of yells rang out from deep in the building. Akashi's eyes narrowed, each taking in a very different view. Crimson red skipped over the students playing tag, the officers standing sentinel between them and their school building, the emotionally distraught teachers huddled together under plainly patterned shock blankets and the paramedics flitting around to check for injury; burnished yellow noted that the yells were all masculine and pained, that Kagami was going to leap through the window even before the fireman registered the piercing noise, that Aomine wouldn't have the heart to hold him back, and that his own had skipped a beat without his permission.

A gunshot rang out in the silent hallways beyond the art room door, followed by a second and third; but Akashi had already seen that. The emperor eye told no lies.


	3. Step 3: Left?

**Step 3: Left...**

**(私は一人...)**

* * *

"Kuroko!"

Aomine scaled the wall in a single leap, bounding from the window sill with the innate grace of a feline. Kagami was already through the door, cargo bag jostling against his back and dashing down the hallway as he tried to locate where the gunshots and yelling had originated, but the officer took a moment to draw his weapon and turn off the safety.

There was very little intel from the inside, even from the teachers who had come face-to-face with the trespassers. He knew for sure that all of them were armed. From vague witness statements, it sounded to him like the guns they were carrying were similar to his own. There had been no mention from anyone of seeing something higher grade, and while he was glad that his Kevlar should be capable of withstanding anything shot his way, it was also his guess that these men were professionals. Everything had been carefully calculated in advance. They didn't need larger ammo, because they wouldn't miss.

"Kuroko! Where are you?!"

He would have rolled his eyes at Kagami's recklessness, but he was barely resisting the urge to follow his lead. Had this situation been a new one—had he still been a rookie—the ache building in his chest would have burst out into full blown panic.

"Daiki."

And had he still been in middle school, that deadly quiet voice would have given him an aneurism. "Akashi," he murmured, keeping his voice down despite knowing that Kagami's would easily cover anything he said. "I can't let you follow me. You're unarmed and a civilian. Wakahisa would have my ass if anything happened to you, especially given your family name."

His former captain met his steady, serious gaze with one of his own. "You doubt me." The stunningly mismatched eyes assessed him, and the probing stare was disconcerting with little effort on Akashi's part. "I would never be unarmed in a potentially hostile situation."

"…scissors aren't going to cut it, y'know. They aren't a bunch of teenagers."

His jacket parted slightly for just a moment as he passed, and Aomine knew it was intentional, because he could have sworn there was a flash of metal. The man made a half turn, only his gleaming yellow eye visible. "Who said I still carried scissors?"

Aomine shivered. Was that a _sword_? …Akashi hadn't changed a bit.

He closely followed Akashi, though he wasn't sure who was covering whom in this situation. Kagami was still yelling loudly ahead of him. It was mildly worrisome that the guy had no survival instinct, but it was equally alarming that no one had shot him yet.

Quick footsteps from his left had him switching his focus immediately. When the first child came into sight, he clicked his gun's safety back on and kept it pointed at the floor. The student nearly shot right past him had he not lightly grabbed her elbow before she could. "Hey, hey, I'm one of the police officers here," he reassured her when her eyes widened and he could feel her beginning to struggle to escape. She eyed him suspiciously, but clearly recognized his uniform and badge. "Are you alright? Is anyone with you?"

She nodded. "Sensei told us that we were racing to get to the art room for ice cream, but Yuki-chan had to go to the bathroom and I'm her partner… But I really wanted ice cream. Should I go back for Yuki-chan?"

"Nope, we'll find her for you so both of you can get ice cream." He hesitated for a moment. As a police officer, he knew he should escort her back to make sure she was safe; on the other hand, she would be taking the same route that he had just come through, that Kagami had run _yelling_ through. It was probably safe.

And he still hadn't found Tetsu…

"You know where the art room is?" She nodded. "We'll make sure that your friend Yuki meets you there. Which way are the bathrooms?"

"Down that way," the girl pointed back the way she had come from. "They're right before the kitchens."

"Got it. Now you better hurry on your way, or they'll run out of ice cream."

Her eyes comically widened, her sense of duty to her classmate warring with the supposedly waning ice cream. It didn't last long. "Tell Yuki I'm getting a scoop of chocolate for her!"

He chuckled as she flew down the hall. Sweets were undoubtedly the path to a child's heart.

Akashi had taken a different path from Kagami, heading towards the north entrance where the hostage takers had been last spotted, so going to the south entrance wasn't a bad idea. Not a few meters down, he could already see the sign for the restrooms off to his left. "Yuki." There was no answer, so he supposed she was still in one of the stalls. He propped open the door with his foot, but didn't step in. "Yuki, your friend is looking for you. Are you in here?"

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" A toilet flushed and there was the sound of water running in the direction of the sinks. A moment later, a girl who didn't even stand as tall as his knee dashed out, paper towels still in hand. "Did Yoshi-chan leave without me?" she asked, looking around for her classmate.

"I asked her to," he quickly said. "The ice cream is running out, so she said she'd get one for you." The answering beam she flashed him was reward enough for the last-second fib. "I still have to find a friend of mine, so do you know where the art room is?"

"Of course! But…" she bit her lip, looking up at him with huge Bambi eyes set alarm bells off in his mind, "won't you need help finding your friend?"

He should've taken off running. He should have. "Umm, no, he wouldn't like it if I kept one of his students from getting their ice cream. It could melt, y'know." This was why he was never, ever having kids. Couldn't say no to the brats when they pulled faces like that.

"Oh! Is Kuroko-sensei your friend, maybe?"

Fuck.

"Uh…"

Yuki beamed a second time, and he thought that next time he walked into a primary school, he'd be bringing sunglasses. "I thought so! Kuroko-sensei is everyone's friend! Toru-sensei was crying, probably because Sho-kun was missing and she thought everyone would blame her, and Kuroko-sensei told her that he would find him while we got ice cream. _Sugoi, ne?_ Kuroko-sensei is always doing things like that for us." She needed to stop smiling or else his perfect vision was going to take a beating. How did Kuroko handle this every day? Had one of his university classes covered this?

"Ah, yeah, that does sound like Tetsu."

"Here! I'll take you where he was going." Yuki grabbed his hands, somehow tugging him down a larger, adjacent hallway despite the massive height and weight difference between them. "He said that Sho-kun had probably gotten lost, but I bet he was just talking to someone in the hallway. Sho-kun is always doing things like that. Sensei always gets so annoyed, because he's always being noisy, but Sho-kun is actually a really nice person. Like once, I forgot my bento box at home, and he said he wasn't very hungry so I could have his. And this other time—"

Aomine, being significantly taller than the girl pulling him along and facing the right way, noticed the puddle of blood in front of a classroom door while Yuki was still happily going on about something or other. In one swift gesture, he dislodged his hands, crouched down and pulled her to his chest. "Shh," he whispered, holding her head tightly against his shoulder to block her vision after pushing his gun back into his hip holster. He couldn't hear anyone, so protocol be damned. Tetsu would kill him for letting one of his kids be traumatized by this.

"Ojii-san?"

"Shh." He wrapped another hand around her waist and stood up. "This is part of Tetsu's game, right? If the other team hears you, then they get the ice cream instead." The blood wasn't puddled as he'd first thought. Rather, it had been smudged by a shoe print. With his elbow, he pushed the door open and carefully glanced in. Nothing. Another sweep of the room confirmed that there had been no struggle, and there were no traces of blood on the floor.

He retraced his steps, moving back to the bathrooms. "Okay, Yuki, I need you to do something for me," he slowly stated as he set her down. She nodded. "Go meet up with your friend in the art room and send one of the guys outside to this spot, right here. I think your sensei might have fallen, so we'll need someone really strong to help him out."

"But, isn't ojii-san really strong?"

His physique hadn't loosened up since his years of basketball at the Academy, not even after the sheer amount of take-out he consumed on late nights. "Yeah, ojii-san is strong, but if your sensei can't tell other kids where to go, then they wouldn't get ice cream, would they?"

She took his words in stride and gave him a cheery salute. "Aye, aye, ojii-san! I'll bring them right back!"

He waited until her form disappeared before returning to the bloody smear on the tiling. There was no way the EMS guys would let her back in, much less the local PD, so his morals were cleaned of the issue. Again, he knelt at the crimson mess. Looking closer, it was definitely spots of dripping blood. The individual spots were all clumped together, making it appear much worse than it was. This pattern and amount could have been caused by a good solid hit to the face, which had the thinnest skin and broke more easily. His guess would have pointed to a broken nose, with the lack of movement following the injury added with the continuous dripping. With a normal bloody nose, a tissue and good grip at the bridge of the nose would quench the flow. A broken nose could have complications and, besides that, it just hurt. If the receiver hadn't been expecting the sudden pain, he would have had no idea what to do. Any attempt to remedy it would have hurt like hell.

Aomine trailed his gaze further down the corridor. If the injured person hadn't gone into the classroom, and he hadn't left any traces of his injury further down the way he and Yuki had entered, then… A spot of red caught his eye, and he stepped over the smeared liquid to get closer. Yep, looked like the person's next reaction was to run. How convenient of them to leave a neat trail for him. It went straight down the corridor, thinning out as the wound began to clot, before making a short jog around a corner and towards the west exit, where it abruptly ended.

He looked back up to see where his injured person had finally gone to. Turned out, it wasn't far. The man was slumped beneath a window, definitely unconscious. Blood was crusted on his bottom lip and beneath a badly bruising nose. The stocking mask in his pocket made it easy to guess that this was one of the hostage takers. He guessed that the large bruise forming on the man's temple was the reason for his current state.

* * *

**...and returned.**

**(...だから 助けて。)**

* * *

Satisfied that the man was out for the time being, he swept his eyes further down the once-pristine expanse. As his eyes locked with an all-too-familiar form, he felt bile rise in his stomach as he shouted, "Te_tsu!"_

_That was odd. He could have sworn he'd just heard his name called, but it was hard to tell with the ringing in his ears._

"_Kagami, Akashi, we're over here! West entrance!"_

_There were footsteps. Loud ones. Were they getting louder? Oh, that's probably because they were getting closer._

_He wrapped his arms tighter around the warmth at his abdomen. Protect. Have to protect. Bad people. Armed people who wanted to hurt._

"_Tetsu! Tetsu, can you hear me?"_

_That sounded familiar. Warm. Not bad. Trustworthy? He hummed, then coughed as pain radiated through his chest at the vibration._

"_Okay, okay, I got you. The building's clear, you hear that? No, wait, don't answer. Uh, I don't have much experience with this, but you can't fall asleep, okay?"_

_He was feeling a little tired, but he supposed that wasn't a big request so he went with it. No sleeping._

"_Kagami! Akashi!"_

_Ah, did he have to yell so loudly?_

"_Daiki, what's the situation?"_

_A shudder went through his bones. It might have been the cold of the tile floor against his skin, or it might have been his instinctive reaction to Akashi's clipped tone._

"_I can't tell, but there's blood, lots of it. Tetsu's conscious, but not by much."_

_Hands were on his shoulders, and even through the light touch, he could feel the heat emanating from them. He wanted to lean back into the grasp, but something told him that wasn't a good idea._

"_Who is the child?"_

"_I assume Sho-kun. One of the students said he had gone missing, so I assume the men confused him with your brother. They have the same hair and body type. He doesn't appear to be injured, but it's hard to tell. I don't want to move either of them until Kagami can make a better assessment."_

"_Tetsuya," the warm hands were on his forehead and his wrist, "are you in pain?"_

_He shook his head. Well, it nothing hurt unless he moved or tried to make sounds, and they needed to take care of Shoichi-kun, not worry about him. He'd probably just landed wrong._

"_Your pulse just sped up," Akashi intoned above him. "Answer my questions truthfully. There is a lot of blood on you, and we need to know how much of it is yours."_

_Blood? There was blood? On him? Had Shoichi-kun been shot? The moments before he'd fallen had been hazy, with lots of noise. Was Shoichi-kun hurt? He needed a medic…_

"_Pulse is speeding up, Daiki. I believe Tetsuya is going into shock." One of the hands was gently ruffling his hair, but he couldn't tell what they said as the ringing got louder._

"_Kagami! Get your ass over here! Where were you?"_

"_North entrance. Wasn't that where the shooters were suppo— Oh, shit. Kuroko!" There was a loud thump, and then a blanket was wrapped around him. The warmth against his chest—Shoichi-kun—was removed for a second before the child settled back against him. "Need…get a stretcher…one of…bleeding out…one, two, THREE!" A chill settled in again when his small burden was removed, lulling him to sleep. Then suddenly, a heavier weight was on his chest and it _hurt_. His eyes shot open with a wet gasp that burned his throat and his back arched. There were voices above him and next to him, but he couldn't understand what they were saying. "Get off!" he tried to yell. It emerged instead as a deep moan that wracked his chest with deep coughs. The world shot into focus, and he squeezed his eyelids back down because it was blindingly _bright _and why did everything _hurt so much_?_

"—_suya, need you to listen—"_

"—_on way, stretcher outside—"_

"—_othing broken. Think it's safe to—"_

_The pain was giving way for an increasing numbness that had already settled into his toes and the fingers that had at some point knotted themselves in someone's shirt. Hands were on his chest, his arms, running through his hair, but he could only half sense them through the haze of beckoning sleep._

_Then his rest was disrupted again as he felt those hands lifting him, his head falling on to someone's shoulder. His chest was still on fire—or it felt like it, anyway—and the pressure on it only increased as_ he let out a choked sob, fingers clenching further into Akashi's shirt. Kagami had nothing to secure the wad of cloth with so he was holding it on to absorb the blood, which was soaking through much too quickly.

Aomine had lifted the unconscious child gripped tightly to the young teacher's chest only to find that the small body was putting pressure on an ugly, gaping wound. He'd lightly set him back down while Kagami grabbed a heavy shock blanket and his off-duty clothes from the bag. When Kuroko's eyes had suddenly opened, they were unfocused and pained. Kagami winced as he'd pushed down on the wound. The body below him weakly protested, moaned and coughed out a small amount of blood.

"We've gotta get him out, stretcher or not," the fireman had stated, after Aomine confirmed that his neck and spine were probably not broken. "He'll bleed out otherwise and I think a lung may be punctured."

"Then let's go." As Kagami faltered, Akashi had lifted Kuroko up into his arms, the teacher's fingers still clutching his jacket in a white-knuckled grip. Kagami adjusted, standing with him and putting pressure back on his chest. With the change in altitude, crimson drops trickled slowly, but steadily, from one leg of his trousers to splash on a spreading pool on the floor, and all three stared at it blankly for a moment. Aomine shifted the child in his arms to look for the source. Despite the dark material, he found the stained hole fairly easily.

"Akashi?" The man nodded his affirmation, and Aomine unlooped the expensive tie from the redhead's neck with one hand. After a short bout of fumbling, he had it tightly tied above the wound to prevent further blood loss. Akashi shifted his arms, keeping the leg slightly more elevated. He looked down at eyes shrouded in wispy blue bangs. Even with his eyes closed, it was clear that he was still conscious.

Kagami glanced over at him. "Got it?"

"Yeah."

"Right. Then _let's move."_

_His chest hurt, and it had for (what he thought had been) awhile. Then, at some point, there had been a quick pain in his leg before it was gone again, melding into numbness. The pressure on his chest alleviated as he felt himself being jostled. Moving? Probably. The voices above him had quieted, and he took that as his cue to relax into a warm shoulder. He was long overdue for a nap, and as unusual as his position felt, it was quite comfortable._

_He felt himself drifting, the cold tremor of his veins warring with the heated skin above it._

_The pressure increased again. He winced._

"_Tetsuya. Stay awake."_

_That was reminiscent of too many late night practices in middle school, being on the verge of sleep while their demon captain demanded another lap, another set, another round. And he could never bring himself to resist, especially seeing what happened when Aomine tried._

_Ah, he must have fallen asleep for a moment, because he'd forgotten what they were doing. Was this another practice match? Haizaki must have distracted Akashi. He normally couldn't even take a seat before his captain was dragging him back up. If Akashi was carrying him, maybe he'd gotten sick again. Training with the first string was nothing like what he was used to, but Akashi said that he needed to get his stamina up quickly. He wasn't sure how well it was working._

_Which only served to remind him how tired he was. Why would Akashi tell him to stay awake if he was carrying him? He still wasn't feeling well. The nausea should have passed quickly, like it always did after a long drink of water, but it wasn't. It really was difficult staying awake. Maybe a short rest would help._

_Just a little…_

"_Kuroko! No sleeping!"_

_Kagami…? Was he in class? Riko's early morning practices were merciless, and he never got quite enough sleep at night, so he was constantly napping during classes. Unintentionally, of course. His light was always whacking him on the head with his textbook to wake him up. It was convenient that he was invisible enough that his teacher never called on him, so he caught up on sleep in-between Kagami's wake-up calls._

_He must have caught his grandmother's cold, between the uncomfortable tightening in his chest and the urge to suppress another cough. But he was already in school. It wasn't worth the trek to the nurse's office or back to his family's house. Riko would happily double his training tomorrow if he skipped out on her, though somehow it felt as if he wouldn't be able to handle her usual regimen today._

_This was… He felt cloth—a jacket, maybe—beneath his fingers. Yes, this was Akashi. There was no one else with that acrimonious, yet gentle scent. Was Akashi…carrying him? Had something happened during a match?_

"_Hey, Tetsu, just a bit more. We're almost there."_

_No, he wasn't in school or a match. Wait, he was in school, just not as a student. He'd gone to university, finished it too. Wasn't he supposed to be working? There had been something going on. Something with…his students? No, it wasn't one of his. Men, men with guns had been in the school. _Were_ in the school. And he'd had, no, there had been a student taken hostage. They thought it was Akashi's cousin, and he'd run over to get him, because he'd _promised_ to get the students out and Toru had looked at him with those eyes, the same ones as Shoichi—_

_A shot. Someone had been shot. What if… What if Shoichi had been shot?_

"_Takao! Over here! We need a stretcher, stat!" _

_Dizzy. Very dizzy. The nausea was giving way, but he only felt worse._

"_Lower him down, slowly. Do we have any compression pads? Compression pads! That'll do, but quick!"_

_The warmth gripping him was leaving him, abandoning him in the grasp of a cold pad as his hands were laid at his side. He gripped at the fabric before it could retract, dragging its owner down with all of his strength, which was not much. "Sh-sho-kun…" He needed to know, even if it pained him to ask, to even think about. "Sh-sho-k-kun…hu-hurt?"_

_A hand was dragged through his hair, and he wanted to lean into it, but his body was responding less and less. "Sho-kun is fine, Tetsuya. Not a single scratch. You did well."_

"_You coming with us?"_

"_I don't believe I have a say in the matter. Tetsuya's fingers are embedded well into my arm."_

"_Is Tetsu going to be alright?" _

"_I'm obviously coming and don't say that, Aomine!"_

"_I was kind of expecting more injured, so we have plenty of room."_

"_We have no time to waste. Daiki, Taiga, either get in or get to work."_

"_H-hai!"_

"_Anyone know his blood type?"_

"_A positive."_

"How_ would you know that?"_

"_I'll call it in so we can get a blood transfusion going as soon as we hit the ER."_

"_Do you know how long he's been bleeding out?"_

"_No more than four minutes, and Taiga applied pressure for half that time."_

"_Heart rate a little slow… BP a little slow… O__2__ saturation falling, let me adjust the oxygen mask… Temperature holding level, so probably no infection… Guys, I think you got there just in time. Shin-chan can definitely patch this up."_

"_Kagami, want me to…?"_

"_Yeah, my fingers are going numb. Hear that, Kuroko? You're going to be just fine."_

"_I can call everyone up, and we can see if Midorima will allow vanilla shakes."_

"Tetsuya, you can sleep now." Kuroko knew it wasn't a request, but it was a command he was more than happy to follow. In a haze of beeps, the blares of a siren, familiar voices and the prick of an IV needle, he drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep.


	4. Step 4: Together

**Step 4: Together**

**(みんなと一緒に)**

* * *

_Breath, cycling through intubation in a rush of air. _

_Drip, from a saline mix, another round of blood transfusions. _

_Beep, the monitor watches a steady heartbeat._

_Breath. _

_Beep. Drip. Beep._

_Breath. _

_Beep. Drip. Beep beep._

Midorima glances up from the charts, pushing his glasses back into place with white, encased fingertips—gloved, not taped—as he notices the slight change in heart rate. Increased blood pressure, too? Probably time to pull out the tube pushing air down his patient's lungs. He can't do this until he regains consciousness, so he waits, somewhat patiently.

_Breath._

_Beep beep. Drip. Beep beep._

_Breath._

_Drip. Beep beep beep._

_Breath._

_Inhale. Cough. Inhale. Cough. Gasp._

_A flurry of motion. Choking. A deep, dry cough._

"Mi-Midori...?"

"Good morning, Kuroko. How are you feeling?"

* * *

"Tetsuya."

_There was a blur in front of his eyes. It was moving, getting bigger. He tried to squint, focus on the blur, but another wave of sleepiness swept over him and his eyes closed instead. _"Mmm, s'ry. Five m're min'ts." _Even his speech felt blurry. Was there something over his mouth?_

_A hand was on his forehead. _"That's alright. Sleep."

_Five more minutes. Then he'd get up, put together his lunch and head over to the school._

"How is he looking, Shintarou?"

"He'll be fine."

* * *

_When he cracked his eyes open the second time, it was in response to a quiet sound, one he couldn't quite place. It was dark, but he easily noticed the large form sprawled over a couch to his side. _"Kagami?"_ He must have stopped over for the night, because his job kept him confined to his department's district. The redhead's clothes looked baggy, so it must have been a late night. As the sound repeated, he chuckled lightly. Kagami always had been a loud sleeper._

_A plastic cup sat on a rolling table within reaching distance. He took a few sips to relieve his parched throat. His head felt like it was throbbing, and he resolved never to let Kagami or Aomine convince him to visit a pub with them again._

_He drifted off with the light thrumming of his friend's snoring filling his ears._

* * *

"Kurokocchi~!"

"Idiot! Don't _jump_ on him."

"B-b-but Aominecchi…"

"Gah! Don't jump on me, either!"

"Kurochin~ I brought vanilla shakes just the way you like them. Aww, Akachin, is Kurochin still sleeping?"

"What're all of you doing up at this ungodly hour? And quit shouting. Some of us are trying to sleep here."

"This is why I suggested you not mention the visiting hours, Taiga."

Kuroko's eyes fluttered open as he was woken by a sudden rabble of voices. Kagami was still slouched over heavily in the couch, widely yawning as he straightened out his collar and jacket. He blinked in surprise as he met a familiar blank stare. "Oh, Kuroko, when did you wake up?"

"Kurokocchiiiiiiiiiiii~!" He tilted his gaze downwards to the floor, where Aomine appeared to have tackled Kise into submission, flattening the pilot beneath him. "Kurokocchi, I was so worried!" the disturbingly high-pitched and much muffled voice cried. Pools of water appeared to be forming beneath his face. Kuroko assumed his inflated tear ducts might be connected. "Akashicchi said—"

"Absolutely nothing," Aomine cut in. He shuffled up so he could continue pinning the blond down while getting a better look at the bluenette above him. "How're you feeling, Tetsu?"

"I feel fine," he said quietly, though he internally winced at the crackling of his words. "What are all of you doing here?" Everyone's eyes suddenly averted. Even Akashi's gaze flickered just the slightest. Kuroko closed his eyes for a moment, and he felt the nasal cannula in his nose, the prick of a needle taped into his arm, and the faint throbbing pain that seemed to ebb and flow. "Why…am I in the hospital?" he asked, almost hesitantly.

"Everyone, please leave the room for a few minutes," Akashi intoned. His voice brooked no allowance for opposition.

Kagami made no movement to get up, and Aomine planted his feet. "Oi!" the officer complained, "You weren't the only one involved in this." The redhead nodded his agreement. He would have been more articulate if he had totaled more than three hours of sleep in the past two days.

The blond didn't possess half of his friend's confidence, but Kise more than made up for it in charisma and eloquence. "Akashicchi, Aominecchi just means to say that you aren't the only one concerned, and the rest of us," he motioned to Murasakibura and Midorima, "would like to be made aware of the situation. The _entire_ situation," he quickly stressed. "Kurokocchi is a very dear friend and we would rather not see a repeat."

"There…" Akashi's eyes narrowed. _There will not be a repeat_, he wanted to say, but so long as Kuroko retained the personality and perception he had been gifted with since middle school, the possibility of him protecting another at the cost of himself remained entirely possible. Akashi was absolute, so he could utter no such lies, even in condolence. He smothered his grimace as the purple-haired pastry maker spoke.

"Akachin, could I stay too? Kurochin needs his vanilla shakes." The large blue package in his hands was held up as Exhibit A of Kuroko's sugar deficiency, the ice inside slushing around as he did so. The morphine-clouded eyes that moved with surprising efficacy to follow the package could easily be submitted as Exhibit B.

"I will need to be present," Midorima informed him, attention never leaving his instruments as he continued his slight adjustments. A brightly colored, stuffed cow—presumably today's lucky item—sat atop the seat behind him, propped up on a stack of files. "His condition is still listed as critical."

Akashi sighed. When had everyone become so impertinent and stubborn? "Fine. Everyone may stay so long as they remain _calm_ throughout the retelling. Agreed?" He was met with a room of nods. Kagami's head bobbing might have otherwise been attributed to drowsiness, but Akashi took it in stride. "Now, Shintarou, may Tetsuya handle liquids?"

"In most cases, I would say no…" The doctor looked between two large pairs of eyes—one deep purple and the other an endless blue, but both reflecting the exact same emotion. Desire. Okay, perhaps two. Desire and hunger. "But since Kuroko has been stable for a full day and I will be present the whole time, I will allow it."

Only at receiving Midorima's compliance did Akashi nod his own permission to Murasakibura. "Just one," he instructed Kuroko, though it seemed to apply to the purple-haired giant as well. The vanilla shake was extracted from its temperature-controlled carrier with the same finesse one would give objects of incredible value and age. Were the drink an artwork of such magnificence as the Mona Lisa it would have been settled on the bedside table with less care. There was much that the two men could still not come to an understanding on, but when it came to the attention one should give high-quality desserts, the teacher and chef were of one mind and form. Murasakibura settled the table within easy reach, and in less than one sip, the slightest hint of color returned to his pale complexion. His satisfaction was heartily noted by Murasakibura, who pulled out a second concoction for his own eating pleasure.

Aomine removed his knee from Kise's back, and the blond accepted his hand so the tan male could pull him up from the floor. Stuffing a grey hospital quilt and pillow behind him, Kagami moved to one side of the couch to make room for the other two to settle in. Murasakibura, to their relief, was comfortable in the corner seat and Akashi had drawn over a matching cushioned implement from behind the door as he pulled it closed.

"What many of you may have heard from recent news is that Ansho primary school was occupied for a short time by a group of armed and likely unstable teenagers, one of which had a relative attending that day. This is not true. My uncle received what was essentially a ransom note from an angered, former employee demanding compensation for the loss of his job and the unforeseen consequences that followed for the return of his son, and my cousin, Hisoka, as well as his classmates." Aomine nodded as the rest of the room sat at the edge of their seats. Kuroko blinked before taking another slow drink of pure vanilla-flavored heaven. Though he had not been aware of the background information that Akashi was providing, memories slowly filtered back in.

…_the first pair of students stealthily crossed the empty hallway, tightly holding hands…_

…_another teacher nervously chewed her lower lip…_

"The school administration reacted quickly and shut down the building, denying the hostage-takers access to the upper floors or any means of exit. My cousin's bodyguard was patrolling the second floor at the time and could not get to him without risking a considerable number of students in the process. I called Daiki and Taiga in to make the situation go more smoothly while we got cameras inside."

…_there was shouting from another hallway…_

…_the woman burst into tears, frantically trying to hold them in with both hands tightly clasped over her mouth…_

"The word we had was that a student had been mistaken for Hisoka due to his similar appearance and red hair, a Kaminaga Shoichi. Had my cousin not been outside at the time of the report, I would have assumed it to be him."

_"A-and th-then he grabbed Sho-kun and s-said that i-if we weren't quiet, he w-w-would—"_

"_I'm putting all my faith in you, okay?"_

"Between the officers on the scene, many of the first-floor students and teachers were quickly evacuated from a classroom window that had not been properly secured by the emergency procedures. After several shouts and gunshots from inside the building, Taiga and Daiki entered to establish the cause." Kuroko looked up from his beloved vanilla as Kagami let out a quiet snort of disbelief. Aomine had rolled his eyes and covered his mouth to ensure that similar sounds would not emerge from his own lips. Akashi barely gave them a passing glance. "My knowledge of the situation ends there. Whatever transpired, it rendered all but one of the assailants unconscious, many of them due to grade III concussions which have resulted in a complete memory lapse of the event and their roles in it. The one left conscious was apparently in a state of shock and admitted to another care facility for twenty-four hour watch before transferring to police custody."

"I have no recollection of being injured, Akashi-kun."

Akashi ceased his matter-of-fact briefing momentarily to stare into calm, pale blue eyes. "You were shot. Twice." Midorima flinched backwards as the monitor beside him registered a violent jump in heart rate that leveled out almost as fast as it had appeared. The room's other occupants took half a dozen glances each between the steady blips on the medical display and their injured friend's lack of external emotion.

"Ah. That would account for it then." Kuroko responded vaguely as he returned to his drink. "Sho-kun was unhurt?"

"Aside from minor shock, yes. He is recovering at home with his family. Tetsuya, do you feel well enough to relate your own experiences?"

"I believe that I have been sleeping for three days straight, which is more than enough time for me to recover. Midorima-kun, I am not about to attempt walking," he stated as the practicing doctor in the room appeared to have his second heart attack in the last two minutes. He sipped at the vanilla shake to relieve the insistent scratchiness that tickled his throat when he spoke. "I don't remember every detail, but most of that day is clear. When Hisoka-kun was enrolled, his parents specifically requested me as his teacher and I was informed in great detail about the risks it would entail. I had never had parent-teacher conferences that lasted as long as those." The general, non-Akashi population of the room felt sweat run down the side of their faces. None of them would have willingly taken an Akashi as their pupil, not even under threat of death or worse.

"So under the circumstances, I presumed that Hisoka-kun was the target and deliberately went against the school's protocols for such a situation. Instead of locking the door, I organized the students and sent them towards the art classroom." He looked up at Akashi. "Please give my sincere apologies to your aunt and uncle. I did not follow established conduct and I left Hisoka-kun with another teacher to get other students out of the building. My priority should have been Hisoka-kun, because he was entrusted to me alone."

"Under the circumstances," Akashi wryly retorted, "I imagine they already feel deeply indebted to you. Such words will be unnecessary and unheeded."

"If Akashi-kun insists," he assented.

"Now how did you know that one of the classroom windows would not lock?"

"All the teachers are aware of it. The window had to be replaced a month or two ago. It has difficulties with the automatic locking mechanism because the proper installments were not made for the safety bars to slide through. We take turns making sure it is secured from the inside each night. Since the automatic locks are part of the security system, I assumed the lockdown procedures would fail on a window that required manual locks."

Aomine was reminded of a time in middle school when a small fire had broken out as a result of a girl dropping her fragile glass beaker on to a wooden desk. Rather than leave it to the teacher or let the smoke alarm activate the sprinklers, Kuroko had passed a cloth under the tap and pressed it fearlessly down on the chemical fire. His movement was so fast and silent that none of their classmates had even realized. The teacher had turned around from the chalkboard at the front of the room and asked everyone to move away from the glass shards so he could clean them up with a broom, not even noticing the scorch marks or faint smell of ozone until a student in his next class inquired about it.

He should have tried recruiting Kuroko to his department earlier. Who knew that teaching would prove to be the more dangerous job?

"So how'd you convince the kids to be quiet and all sneaky-like?" he asked, elbows propped up on his knees and chin resting firmly between his large palms. "They were pretty composed when we took 'em out, just asking over and over for ice cream."

"Yeah," Kagami recalled, perking up. "And something about team-building, I think."

"_Alright, now this is going to be the hard part. You cannot let the students know of the danger."_

Kuroko slurped up the last of his shake, looking blankly down at the clear plastic container, then over to Murasakibura. The pastry maker shook his head and he sighed, setting the cup aside and settling back into his pillows. "I told them it was an exercise to teach them how to work together. Everyone had to sneak over to the art classroom without letting anyone know where they were, and all the kids that got over to the entrance would get an ice cream cone and the next day off school."

"And they _believed you_?" Aomine simply couldn't believe that he had convinced half the school that they had been locked down, surrounded and needed to be completely silent all due to a team-building exercise.

"Of course they did. When you follow an explanation—regardless how absurd—with a goal resulting in ice cream, any child would happily do whatever you ask to achieve their dessert," he stated slowly, as if this were prerequisite knowledge for life itself that Aomine had somehow slept through. Judging by the speed at which Kise was taking notes, however, he hadn't been the only one to miss this particular lesson. "I assumed that they would have at least the next day off as a result of police investigation and parent complaints, so I threw that in to make them more compliant. I believe it worked quite well."

"T-tetsu…" He sighed, covering his face with both palms. Sometimes, he thought, Kuroko could be just as manipulative and underhanded as Akashi.

"It was not as easy convincing the teachers that things were proceeding smoothly, but I believe that they did as well as they could have in the situation. I had them take their classes in pairs so two adults were in each group." He hesitated then, and his monitors showed glimpses of what his composed expressions did not. "One class, though, closer to the front doors, it took a long time to calm Toru-san down. One of her students, Sho-kun, had been grabbed and apparently threatened her and her class. Once she was calm, I told her where the open window was and how to explain the situation to her class. Then I…" His eyes closed as his fingers clasped at the blankets draped over him. There was no lapse in his memory to get around. He simply didn't want to see anyone's reactions. "I went to get Sho-kun."

He heard Kise burst into tears, and guessed by the quiet whispering that he was burrowed in Aomine's chest. The sounds of munching in the corner had stopped entirely. A hand rested comfortingly on his head and Midorima was telling Akashi that this was enough for the day. Kuroko didn't wait for the redhead's response before opening his eyes. "I wasn't done yet," he noted quietly.

Akashi and Midorima were having a conversation that consisted of an odd mix of eye twitches, small gestures at some of the medical readings, and glances over at the topic of their silent discussion. It gave the impression of ending when the doctor gave a small huff as if to say, "Do what you want, because you will anyway," and leaned against a wall with a look belying his apparent approval. Akashi finally nodded to him. "Please go on, then."

Kuroko looked up at Kagami, whose hand remained atop his head. "My hair will not fall off without your support, Kagami-kun." The redhead spluttered, but ruffled his hair with a muttered, "Just in case," before moving back to the couch. Aomine had resigned himself to being Kise's tearfest pillow and motioned for him to ignore the blond's antics. Murasakibura didn't resume snacking until Kuroko began speaking again.

"It wasn't hard to locate where they were. None of them were bothering to keep their voices down. So I walked up behind them, took Sho-kun and left."

The room fell into silence as they tried to interpret Kuroko's words, because he couldn't possibly have just said that he had walked into a place full of armed men, grabbed the child they were holding hostage and simply walked back out on a whim. No, he couldn't possibly have just said that.

"I presume this didn't work," Akashi slowly surmised.

"Well most of it did," he admitted, sipping at a vanilla shake in his hands that seemed to have miraculously refilled itself, an act which did not go past Akashi unnoticed. He shot a look at the purple-haired giant, who simply shrugged, his own cup having inexplicably switched places with Kuroko's as the one in his own hands was empty. If Murasakibura knew anything about this proceeding, he did not let him in on it. Akashi let it go, other priorities currently at the forefront of his thoughts. "I just thought that Sho-kun was small enough that he might substitute for, say, a basketball. When he was being passed from one of the men to the other, he was out of sight just long enough that they didn't notice when I grabbed him.

"But as Akashi-kun says, it did not go entirely as planned. Children are not used in place of birds or scarves in magic tricks because they are harder to distract from, even for a short period of time. I took Sho-kun and left, as I said, but one of them noticed his disappearance and saw me in time to see where I went. I am not a fast runner, so he caught up quickly."

"Was he the one that shot at you?" Aomine asked lowly, almost growling.

"No. I heard him coming well in advance so I was prepared."

"With _what_?"

Kuroko gave a small smile. "I sent an Ignite Pass Kai to his face."

An image of a man with a badly damaged nose and split lip came to mind. Aomine, having been on the other side of one of his former teammate's quick passes before, shot his hands up quickly to his own face as if to guard from a demonstration of the event. Had the man not tried holding his friend's school hostage, he would have felt very, very sorry for him.

"I passed two teachers who had been on break and taken shelter in one of the empty classrooms, and I tried to convince Sho-kun to go in with them while I led the men away. He wouldn't let go of me, so I told them to barricade themselves in and not move until lockdown was officially ended. It was like being on the court in school, the adrenaline surge," he reminisced. "When they caught up, I had more energy than I've ever had in my life. I don't even remember much about it, except that I wasn't going down without taking every single one of them with me." The corner of his lip twitched. "I'm glad to hear that I got all of them."

_He's like a mother bear on a rampage_, was the thought that the GoM and Kagami simultaneously had, while Akashi looked pleasantly smug, patting Kuroko's knee through the blankets. _No wonder the Akashis have so much trust in him._

Kuroko yawned, and Midorima took the opportunity to pry the drink from his hand to his patient's dismay. "Murasakibura may give you another one tomorrow after you've rested some more."

"Ah, but it's not empty…"

"I know you pulled some kind of switch while I wasn't looking, and I only allowed one. One!" He repeated as pale hands tried to sneak his shake back, handing the cup back to Murasakibura.

The chef gave him an apologetic look as he put the drink back in his blue container. "Kurochin will have another one tomorrow, freshly made~."

"_Domo_ Murasakibura-kun."

"Now the rest of you, shoo! I am perfectly capable of suspending any of your visiting privileges if you continue to keep my patient up with your incessant antics. Kagami, Aomine, I'll still allow one of you to sleep on the couch in here, but only so long as you continue to behave."

"Shintarou, Satsuki will be visiting this afternoon. Would it be better to have her time her visitation for tomorrow?"

The two looked over to Kuroko's bed, which was enveloped by their former teammates. Kise's mood had made a complete 360 flip back to his bubbly, cheerful persona. He'd perched himself up by the bluenette's hip, taking care to avoid the tubes, wires and recently repaired wounds while creating the appearance that he hadn't even noticed any of them. The blond laughed at something Murasakibura had done, the giant also closer to the bedside though still in his chair. In response, the chef shoved a stick of pocky into Kise's mouth. The blond continued giggling around the snack, small crumbs falling from his lips.

Aomine had a large grin on his face as he leaned over Murasakibura's shoulder to snag a pocky stick for himself, to the pastry maker's protestation. Kise mumbled something around his pocky about good manners to which the officer cried foul. "Hey! Sharing! We're all friends here, right?"

Kagami didn't even complain about the noise, stretched out on the emptied couch. A quilt and his work jacket were tossed over his shoulders and it wasn't long before his soft, rumbling snores reached their ears.

"Have her drop by," Midorima suggested, checking the label on a vial he had extracted from his lab coat before tucking it back in. "The visits help, it's easy to tell. He seems to wake every 12 hours for ten to twenty minutes, though we have to wait awhile each time for him to remember where he is." He shrugged. "Worst case, he's sleeping and she returns with you tomorrow."

"She'll want to bring food."

"Convince her not to make it and stick with liquids. I won't see my patients survive surgery just to turn around and be killed by food poisoning, of all things."

Akashi just shook his head in amusement.

A nurse stepped in to put a new bag of morphine on the rack. She had to threaten Kise with a tranquillizer to hook it up to the IV line behind him, and the blond responded predictably. Once the internal switch had been flipped, 4-year-old whiny, immature Kise was replaced by his suave, cool and collected 24-year-old counterpart the former model and current pilot. Immediately the nurse sensed the presence of a very handsome, very charming, and very _single_ Adonis, nearly swooning when he held up her free hand in his own, lightly kissing her fingers in apology.

Aomine rolled his eyes—he'd seen _this_ episode before in plenty of post-game doctor visits—and Midorima forcibly unseated the newly licensed pilot from the bed before he could fly away with a nurse that was "on duty" and "trying to administer pain-killers and post-surgery antibiotics". Murasakibura amused himself by popping the little hearts and flowers that seemed to float around the hapless nurse.

Akashi finally stepped in to remove his three companions from the premises, sending them out the door with a look that promised nothing good in the future—if they, in fact, had a future—if they did not follow his instructions. "Shintarou, I will escort these _children_ back tomorrow. Continue to keep me updated. Tetsuya."

The object of his heterochromatic gaze yawned lazily, dragging his attention from the nurse at his morphine stand to Akashi. It was a slow process. "Hmm?"

"Get better."

"Mmm, 's that 'n order?"

"I don't have to order it. You will get better."

"Tha…" He barely suppressed another yawn and settled into his blankets. "Tha's good. _Domo_."

Midorima sighed as his horde of former teammates—at long last—departed. With careful fingers, the doctor adjusted his nurse's handiwork. He had no doubt that given a little more time, the former Seirin basketball team would manage a reunion too, sooner if Kagami got around to remembering them.

A series of shouts registered in the hallway outside and he rested his forehead against the fingers of his left hand. The door slammed violently open. "Kuroko, what the _hell_ did you do?!"

The doctor checked his watch. Not even twenty minutes past seven and his day was already looking hectic. Oha Asa had been right, yet again. His lucky item could only do so much for him today. Aquarius may have had the worst luck yesterday, but when it was suggested that Cancers avoid public places today, he could only imagine the absolute ruckus he'd be stepping into.

* * *

_A/N: Sorry for the wait, everyone! I have a couple minutes to post, but I don't have the time to do any real editing. Heathrow is really busy, has terrible wifi and we can only hope that we are at the right terminal. I may have to do some more running if we aren't. If you see any errors, please tell me so I can correct it once I get off in JFK. Next chapter will be quicker, I promise! Ja ne!_


	5. Step 5: There and Back Again

**Step 5: There…**

**(行ってきます。)**

* * *

As it turned out, both Kuroko's former teammates from Seirin and Momoi arrived too late to do anything more than catch up on his current condition, leave small gifts and whisper that they'd be back tomorrow.

When Kuroko next woke, the room was unexpectedly quiet. Aomine was now occupying the couch, though the position he was sleeping in looked less than comfortable. Someone had just left the room, judging by the small movements the half-shut door was still making. A pile of blankets in the corner chair made him assume that he had another friend that had spent the night with him. A small smile graced his lips. His friends were crazy to the point of being almost clinically insane at times, they could be cruel and not realize the pain they inflicted at times, and all too often, they were scarily possessive. But when it came down to the line, he knew that his friends, old and new, would be there for him.

His throat was parched, as it always seemed to be when he woke up, and he reached for the ever-present plastic cup. The table had been moved, probably by a nurse, putting the water just out of his grasp. His eyebrows furrowed and he stretched just the slightest bit too far. He gasped, withdrawing his hand to hold it just above his side, not wanting to aggravate the injury but at the same time trying to make it stop aching.

A shadow fell over him and pale fingers closed over his hovering hand, squeezing them gently before pushing them back down to the sheets. "You shouldn't be moving around too much, Tetsuya. The muscles are not fully healed yet."

Kuroko blinked owlishly. Processing new information was a slow process while he was on morphine. It was an unusual feeling, always being a step behind. On the bright side, he supposed he could better sympathize with Kagami after this. "I was not aware that Akashi-kun had moved to Kyoto."

His middle school captain was hardly fooled by his misdirection. "I have not. My aunt, Hisoka's mother, has allowed me to stay in her guest room while I am here."

"Akashi-kun, I will survive if you need to leave for work."

Akashi gave him a skeptical look and Kuroko looked down. "How does your side feel? And 'I'm fine' is not an acceptable response."

The bluenette frowned. "It doesn't hurt too much. I am on morphine, you may recall."

Clearly that was not an acceptable response either. Akashi sat down on the bed and moved the hand attached to the IV line off his chest, pulling up on the sheets tightly tucked around his chest. Until Midorima determined that he was perfectly stable and his wounds healed to an acceptable degree, his patient was clad only in long, cotton pajama pants so as to make accessing the bandaging around his abdomen easier when the nurses rewrapped it. A quilt had been wrapped around his shoulders at some point to keep him warm during the blood transfusions.

He winced as Akashi pressed carefully around the wound. "No swelling and no signs of tearing in the stitches."

"Then please stop poking it."

Akashi sent him one of _those_ looks, but he bundled him back up. "Still, stretching beyond your limits should be avoided. If you want something, shouting should alert Daiki." He reached across the bed to snag the plastic cup that had initiated the situation. "I believe your teammates from Seirin will be joining us today. Aida was particularly insistent." Kuroko accepted the drink and took a few sips of the cool water. "Even Shintarou had a difficult time dissuading her."

"Ah, I was supposed to meet Izuki-kun for lunch two days ago. He must have called Riko-san when I didn't show." Just as his bonds with his middle school team had not faltered after finishing school, he had remained in close contact with his friends and teammates at Seirin. Kiyoshi had moved out of the area for a job offer in Niigata, as had Furihata in Nara, but they maintained a long distance relationship with their former team through a constant flood of emails, texts and occasional phone calls. Since Izuki and Riko lived not far from Ansho primary school, he often met up with them after work or on weekends. If he couldn't make it, he always called ahead of time.

If his unexplained absence hadn't panicked them, then any news reports or calls to his coworkers would have done the job. He had no doubt that Kagami would have completely forgotten to mention his admittance to the hospital.

Which just so happened to remind him of another problem.

"Akashi-kun, would someone mind dropping by my apartment to check on Nigou?" The huskie, who had grown significantly since his unofficial adoption in high school, was as smart as ever. Nigou knew exactly where Kuroko kept the food, and given time and effort, would be able to help himself with minimal mess. He wouldn't be nearly as enthusiastic about the lack of exercise he was getting. Their morning walks had turned into morning and evening walks as the puppy grew in both size and stamina.

"Ryouta has been dog-sitting since you were brought in," Akashi replied with some amusement. "Between Ryouta and your fellow teachers, Nigou has had an overabundance of attention."

Kuroko let out a sigh. He was lucky to have such close friends.

Akashi patted his pillow and took the water back. "You're going to want to rest and recover your strength. Aida will be coming in to complain about your choice of students as soon as visiting hours start."

That seemed like reason enough to go back to sleep, but first, "Will Akashi-kun be staying here?"

"Of course."

"I am told that sleeping in chairs does terrible things to one's posture."

For that, he earned another patented Akashi look. "Tetsuya, some things are more important."

* * *

Midorima had finally allowed semi-solid food, to his patient's unnoticeable delight. Eating nothing but soup did terrible things to one's appetite, especially when said soup was distilled in the bland way that only hospitals and school cafeterias can manage.

As the nurse left him with the small bowl of rice he had requested, the door flew back open without ever managing to close. "Kuroko, what the _hell_ did you do?!" Had his green-haired doctor been present, he would have felt a creeping sense of déjà vu.

"Riko-san," he quietly responded, laying his chopsticks across the top of the porcelain bowl before managing to get more than a mouthful of rice, "I apologize for not being able to speak to you yesterday."

His former manager's wild aura calmed almost instantly, Kuroko's toneless words and expression, as always, neutralizing even the most emotional people around him. "You're awake!" She made her way to his side, pulling over an empty chair and resting her elbows on the bed. "How are you feeling? That Bakagami didn't so much as message anyone, so it's a good thing I still keep in contact with everyone else. Geez," she huffed, "the things I put up with for you."

"I am doing much better now. It was not my intention to worry you."

"_Obviously_," she rolled her eyes. "We got the news from Aomine. Hyuuga, Izuki and Mitobe are on their way too once they manage to grab Koganei. Oh, and Kiyoshi and the others say that they'll try to get a couple days off this week to drop by. Hey! Don't stop eating on account of me! Eat up, or I'll feed you myself!"

Riko had lost none of her frightening aura. He unhesitatingly complied. Only once the bowl was entirely emptied did she continue speaking. "So I didn't manage to pull the whole story out of Ahomine, but what I did get is that you were a regular hero, getting all the kids out." She smirked as the faintest hint of color emerged on his cheeks. "Ah ha! So I was right! I can tell that you're going to be a tight-lipped brat about this hero business, so I'll have to extract it from Bakagami. Of course you won't get out of this so easily." Her grin grew, as did Kuroko's unease. "It'll sneak up on you _right_ when you least expect it," the woman chuckled evilly.

What had he done wrong in his previous life?

Momoi entered the room in a burst of color not long after, bearing a large gift basket—thankfully, store-bought—and an array of balloons, Riko's promised entourage trailing just after her. After a hefty dose of (s)mothering from Momoi and Riko, a whole barrage of stories from his high school teammates and a short video conference with Kiyoshi, Midorima came in to shoo them all out. An hour, he felt, was more than enough time for well-wishing and tomfoolery. They left with his reassurance that he'd be home before they knew it and lighter hearts than they had entered with. He suspected that Aomine, in true fashion, had completely overstated this whole thing and gotten the lot of them worked up into a frenzy on purpose.

Aomine, still snoozing away on the couch, was in no state of mind to contradict his argument.

After a short rest and a bowl of the dreaded soup, he felt terribly sympathetic towards the door to his room, which was slammed open yet again. The frame was already beginning to look worse for the wear, Kuroko thought as Kise skidded to a halt beside him, bursting with energy and messages from the teachers he had spoken to and/or flirted with. Murasakibara and Akashi were not far behind him, the former carrying a familiar bag with him. Kuroko was instantly pulled from Kise's rambling to stare intently at the tote bag. It wasn't until the vanilla shake was removed and placed in his loving care that he paid attention to his friends.

Aomine had been woken by the blond's loud commentary at this point, to which he grumbled and complained, but refrained from kicking Kise at Akashi's pointed look. Midorima poked his head in just long enough to mouth "one hour" before ducking back out.

Kuroko, after convincing Murasakibara to crank his bed up so he could see them all properly without straining his neck, listened to a great deal of amusing situations that had transpired while he was out.

At the police station, varying takes of his "heroic actions," as Aomine put in air quotes, had travelled very far very quickly. Particularly far-fetched stories featured death-defying jumps from the second story, a bomb-strapped hostage taker, wild gun battles and a female teacher of stunning beauty in distress. Those who had heard the account straight from Aomine put in requests to have Kuroko teach them misdirection for future reference. All in all, the resulting affair at the elementary school had been considered an unexpected success. "And," he concluded with a toothy grin, "there's been talk going around about making sure all schools have a couple unbolted windows during lockdown."

Upon receiving Akashi's call, Kise had been sitting at the airport in Yokohama, waiting for his return flight. To no one's surprise, he had completely overreacted. He had presumably interpreted "Tetsuya's been shot and we're taking him to the hospital," as "Tetsuya's been shot and he's on the brink of death so get over here right this second." After quickly turning the nearest television set to the breaking news on the shooting, he had cried his heart out on the flight attendants and just about every other female in the terminal, who cooed sympathetically over him. One woman had offered him her seat on the next flight. His response was somewhere between a heartfelt thanks and a marriage proposal, depending on who you asked.

Murasakibara had put all of his bakery's resources towards ensuring that he had a fresh supply of vanilla shakes and other clearly necessary confectionaries in reserve. His employees, who had never received a personal request from the manager and head chef in their lives, rushed headlong into his directives as if their lives depended on his satisfactory responses. The end result was a fully stocked refrigerator in his apartment awaiting his arrival. If Kise's rapid nods were anything to go by, Kuroko suspected he wouldn't have to cook for himself for many nights to come. Momoi had dropped off some meals as well, though Kise assured him that they had all been store bought under his and Murasakibara's careful watch.

According to Aomine and what Aomine had heard from Kagami, Midorima had no shortage of nurses willing to keep a twenty-four hour surveillance on his patient. During the first day after surgery, Aomine could personally attest to seeing a card table and chairs set up in the hallway just outside. He didn't think that the door had even once been allowed to close. Kagami, who had been allowed to spend the night, had cheerfully informed him that the good doctor himself had been in and out at least once an hour, even long after his day shift ended. Day two had been even more hectic as a blood transfusion resulted in a high fever and chills that refused any attempts at temperance for several hours. Midorima, he said, had called it a nonhemolytic reaction when he stepped in for his afternoon shift and told the clamoring nurses to get back to their stations, but he'd made sure that there was at least one nurse present in the room with a wet towel, thermometer and freshly warmed blankets when he wasn't present. _Midorima is such a tsundere_, the room's occupants simultaneously thought.

Several loud sneezes were audible from down the hall. Aomine snorted.

"Anyway, Akashi's family was pretty pleased with this whole affair, which is a good thing because they wound up being the ones who paid for all the ice cream," he noted with a chuckle. From where he was leaning on the wall, Akashi all but rolled his eyes. "And they did get the next two days off school. Of course, I think it was mostly because the parents and teachers were in hysterics and there were some problems taking the building out of lockdown. That, and the reporters kept trying to grab people to interview. It was nearly impossible to find a parking place."

Kagami arrived during his entertaining reenactment of the barricading that the administrators and nearby officers had to do to hold off the "swarming, blood-hungry piranhas," just as Aomine held Murasakibara in front of him to fend off the invisible invading cameramen. "I've never seen such a lively hospital room," he remarked, a smile coming unbidden to his face as he was handed a vanilla shake by the pastry chef and temporary riot shield. "Has this party been sanctioned by the doc?"

"Midorima-kun wouldn't have let them in if he hadn't," Kuroko said.

"Point taken."

* * *

**...and back again.**

**(ただいま。)**

* * *

A week later, after much fussing by a whole crew of nurses and a final once-over, Aomine drove him back to his apartment in his squad car after receiving a whole list of instructions for Kuroko to follow to prevent infection, swelling, ripping stitches, and something unpronounceable that he casually disregarded. Once Midorima started using words longer than five syllables, his former teammates tuned out of the conversation to avoid brain damage. Takao was the only known exception to the doctor's mind-numbing terminology, even managing to respond with equally ridiculous words. What it inevitably came down to in layman's terms was that he wasn't to lift anything heavier than ten pounds without assistance, stretch beyond the point of stiffness, stand for more than a few minutes at a time and he absolutely could not resume work for a month. It would have been a shorter period of time had Kagami not made a joke about the kids being more detrimental to his health than a hostage situation. Midorima had _not_ been amused.

Kuroko fell asleep midway through the ride, his small bag of medications and extra gauze padding still tucked between his hands. Though the injury to his leg had been less severe—managing to somehow miss any major blood vessel and bones—he still had gauze wrapped around the stitches and a padded boot strapped on that he was to use for at least the next two weeks.

Aomine pulled up to the side of the building and shifted into park. His mouth twitched into a smile as he looked over at his sleeping passenger. He put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle shake. "Rise and shine, sleepyhead," he said as Kuroko slowly blinked sleep from his eyes. "We're here."

"Already?" He stifled a yawn.

"Yup. Let's get you upstairs. I bet your futon's more comfortable than my passenger seat."

Kuroko shot him a deadpan look, but the officer was already out of the car, stepping around the back to pop the trunk. He settled with a heavy sigh instead and opened his door. With the plastic bag's dangling from one wrist, he prepared to step out to the parking lot.

"Wait, wait! Give me _one_ more second." He heard clicks from behind the car and stretched his neck out to see what was causing the holdup. "One more… There!" In a clack of metal, Aomine appeared with a triumphant expression. "Your carriage awaits, my lady." He punctuated his statement with a dramatic flourish. Had he not been explicitly told to avoid making any sudden movements, Kuroko would have punched him in an instant for that comment. Going by the way Aomine was biting back either a laugh or other smartass remark, he knew it too.

"I can walk," he said, barely gracing the contraption with even a disdainful look.

"Uh huh. That's not what Midorima and every other nurse in your wing told me."

"It's been a week and a half. I can walk."

"Tetsu, just get in the wheelchair. Don't you dare pout at me. So help me I _will_ carry you like a princess," he threatened, waggling a finger.

His eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't."

"I _would_."

It took only a few seconds for Kuroko to decide that the indignity of being pushed around like a cripple was worth avoiding the mortification of looking like a girl. Aomine helped get him from the car by elevating his legs while he swiped at the wheelchair parked beside him. "Wipe that smirk off your face," he grumbled, cringing at the off-tune whistling above him as he squirmed in the chair.

"I consider this a major victory," Aomine said. "I think it's why everyone voted I take you home."

"There was a vote?"

"Not really. Kise suggested it and everyone agreed. I wasn't even in the room at the time," he huffed, stopping at the three steps in front of the apartment building. Aomine maneuvered his hands under the seat and easily cleared the short flight in one quick lift. "Kagami offered, but he doesn't actually have a car. Wheelchairs are hard to attach to the back of motorcycles, ya know." The double doors were harder to clear, considering they opened outwards, but between the two of them, they managed. "You should complain to the building manager about this. I mean, honestly, what if some little old lady came in with a walker or whatever? She'd have to wait at the door for someone to let her in."

"I apologize for not considering wheelchair accessibility when choosing a place to live, Aomine-kun."

"As you should," he shot back. "If there weren't an elevator here, I'd have dumped you at someone else's house." He stabbed at the up button a second time when the doors didn't open fast enough. When the elevator arrived, the wheelchair was backed in carefully. "Your toes in?"

Kuroko wiggled the five sticking out of his boot. "Should be."

The door closed, and when it wasn't accompanied by a shout, Aomine draped one arm over the bluenette's head. "So, uh, I know I don't live close by or anything, but if you ever need a ride or help with something—"

"Then I'll ask Riko-san." He peered up at the tall male through the fingers blocking his vision. "But it was a nice offer."

"Uh, yeah…" Aomine ran his free hand through his hair as he grabbed at his derailed train of thought. "There was a point to this besides that, and I think I just lost it." With a ping and a small bounce as the elevator reached the fourth floor, the wall of metal before them shuffled aside. Aomine was pushing him out as he suddenly snapped his fingers. "Ah! I remember. Since the whole incident at Ansho, my boss stuck me on paid vacation. I think it's for the next two-ish weeks, but I figure I'll get a call the day of asking where I am so I didn't bother to write the date down."

Kuroko raised an eyebrow. "Is this relevant?"

"Well yeah, considering I'll be sleeping over until then."

The eyebrow didn't go down. If anything, it arched higher.

"Look." He stopped outside their destination, fiddling with his ear as he moved to stand in front of Kuroko and not quite meeting his unblinking and distinctly unnerving stare. "I…I mean we…no, wait, I wasn't supposed to mention that. I just wanted to make sure someone was around in case, you know, something happened and Wakahisa said that my depressing mood was disturbing everyone so I might as well take some time off so I went back to my apartment but Midorima said he wouldn't text me updates more than twice a day and I might as well just stay over so he could get back to his job and I figured that when you came home it might be difficult moving around for a while even though you've been doing nothing but sleeping so I just told Momoi that I might as well stay over and then she might have told Kise, who told Murasakibara and anyone in hearing range, which included a lot of other people including Kagami and Riko and—"

"Should I expect a week-long slumber party?" Kuroko interjected as he noticed that Aomine's mouth was nearly the same shade as his hair.

"Nooo… I mean, I'll be crashing for a week, but I think Kagami and Kise were going to do shifts after that since they live closer."

"So there's a surprise party, then."

Aomine smacked his head into the nearest wall—twice—and then took a deep breath before composing himself. "I can neither confirm nor deny that statement, but that's not the point of this."

"I'll pretend to look surprised."

"You never look surprised, now quit interrupting me. I was going to say something meaningful about all of us being really composed about your, uh, _altercation_—"

"I was shot."

"—but it was really, really hard." He pressed both palms to his eyes, as if trying to grind them out. "Ugh, this whole thing has just been… It's been hard and frustrating and _dammit_ why didn't you call me or someone else before running off on your own? I would have driven faster or…or gone in sooner instead of waiting for you to come out with the rest of the teachers or…something!" Aomine went down on both knees in front of the chair and gripped the armrests with both hands, fixing his eyes unwaveringly on the wide blue ones above him. "Don't _ever_ scare me like that again, Tetsu," he demanded, voice steady and determined as purpose rose in his throat. "I've had to make too many calls to people to tell them that someone they care about isn't coming home for dinner. I don't know if I can make that call to Kise or Kagami or Momoi or another of our friends because you pulled some stunt without thinking about how _we_ might feel standing around waiting to see if you'll wake up. Did you know that Midorima didn't sleep until you woke up? And Murasakibara and Kise went on a spending splurge to make sure you wouldn't be hungry for the next month because you looked so happy after that vanilla shake? And Akashi got into an actual fight—raised voices, swearing, the whole nine yards— with his uncle for not bringing this up before things got out of hand? And Kagami washed his hands for…" He stopped to rub at his eyes as his voice broke, "…for hours and _hours_ because he said the blood wouldn't wash out."

Two small hands wrapped around his head until they met at the nape of his neck, and let them pull him forward until his chin bumped against a pair of knees. He bit back a sob. "I'm sorry," came a quiet, slightly wavering voice and he felt a head bump against the top of his. "I'm so so sorry, because if I had to do it again, I would do it all the same."

Aomine blinked back tears three, four, five times. Then he gave up and just let them run their course. He propped his elbows up on the seat and laid his broad palms against the arms pressed tightly to his head. "I know," he choked out, "but maybe…send Akashi a text so he can ride in, scissors and swords and all?"

"He has swords now?" Kuroko responded weakly.

"Probably handed his scissor collection down to that cousin of his." He sniffled, pulling away a little to rock back on his heels. "God, I think I just had a Kise moment."

"Kise-kun wouldn't have been that coherent." Aomine nodded until it was followed up with, "You're just getting old."

"Hey!" He only let it go because those big blue eyes were suspiciously shiny. "I am in the prime of my life. Have you not seen these muscles? My abs have abs. Don't laugh, I'm serious!"

"So, just to be clear," the teacher cleared his throat as if he were suppressing a cough and not a rare display of strong emotion, "there _is_ a surprise party."

"I never said that."

"Supposing there were a celebration of sorts waiting for us to enter so they can douse us in confetti," he looked up at Aomine, who put his palms forward and made a zipping motion with one across his mouth, "then what flavor would this cake be?"

"_Hypothetically speaking_," Aomine started, "it would be an ice cream cake with a candy store dumped on top of it. And, obviously, our local master chef would hardly let this cake be anything but handmade."

Kuroko nodded understandingly. "In that case, we shouldn't wait too long. The hypothetical ice cream could be melting as we speak."

Despite the wet eyelashes framing red rimmed, shadowed eyes that showed hours of worry and sleepless nights, the grin that tugged on Aomine's lips was as carefree as he had ever seen it. "Welcome home."

And despite the ache tugging at his abdomen from bending forward that demanded another round of narcotics, his own half-smile was equally bright. He may have taken the long, winding, and not-quite-so-scenic route, but he'd had plenty of helping hands to catch him when he fell…

"I'm home."

…Kuroko didn't regret a single step.


End file.
